Getting your business noticed in search engine results is more important than it’s ever been before. With 93% of all online experiences beginning with a search engine, according to Search Engine Journal, and eMarketer expecting web users to spend an estimated $1.5 trillion on the internet by the end of 2014, the stakes have, indeed, been raised.
Especially if you run a small business, learning to use local SEO strategies can be crucial to your business making it through 2014 and thriving in the years beyond. Of course, for many companies of all sizes, local SEO is often easier said than done.
Defining Local Search SEO
As defined by Business 2 Community, a popular business and marketing website, local SEO is the method of reshaping your online marketing efforts to specifically target consumers in your geographic region. From social media statuses to blog posts, everything you do can be localized to help draw more foot traffic into your brick-and-mortar store.
Four Easy-to-Implement Local SEO Strategies
- Focus on Engaging Customers on Social Media
- Claiming Local Listings Should Be a Priority
- Make Use of the Footer Space at the Bottom of Your Page
- Make Sure You Format Your Contact Info, Wherever It Appears
For Search Engine Land, one of the best ways to improve your local SEO is by making an effort to be active on social media. From fun tweets featuring well crafted jokes to sharing articles about your industry, using social media shows your followers you’re a human being, not just a marketer. This goes a long way in building interest in your brand.
Did you know that, according to Moz, listing your webpage with local listing websites, like Yelp, can increase the amount of business flowing to your company by 19%? That’s why you need to make an effort to claim your local listings on Google, Yelp, Bing, and any local websites in your area that try to promote local businesses. It’s free to do, but it could easily gain you a lot of revenue.
As Yahoo! Small Business News points out, making use of the footer space on the bottom of your page is an incredibly simple way of improving your local SEO. By placing your name, address, and phone number in this footer section, thereby ensuring it appears on every page of your site, you greatly increase your chances of being found when web surfers search for businesses in your area.
That being said, it’s not enough just to place your contact information onto your website. In order to ensure Google’s robots can catalog your business info, you need to make sure it’s properly formatted. Typically, you’ll want to list your contact information in name, address, and phone number (NAP) format. It’s simple, but it’s effective.
Do you make a living working with SEO company services? What tips would you give our readers to improve their local SEO strategies? Let us know in the comments below! Learn more about this topic here.